"It's funny. It's smart. It's layered," said Sam Jay at one point during the first night of her three-night stand at Comedy Bar, after a joke didn't get as enthusiastic a reaction as expected. "I don't know what you want."

The thing about Jay's act is it takes a while to adjust to. She's got such an in-your-face look and attitude – and we are, y'know, polite Canadians – that we need time to process and catch up.

Jay, best known as a writer on Saturday Night Live, actually does a respectable job of introducing herself, beginning with a decent Drake bit about how his songs aren't exactly suicide-inducing but make you look over a balcony, thinking you could do it.

Frank and fearless and clad in a black shirt, with gold chain and carefully distressed jeans, Jay deals directly with her sexual evolution early on, telling a story about thinking she was a good lesbian before seeing a guy on the street whose dick she had once sucked.

That leads to one of her strongest jokes, about how she discovered she was a lesbian because she never enjoyed giving head. The level of detail she provides recalling where a man squirted his "dick juice" on her – "2002 Nelly concert," she says, pointing to her shoulder – lends her jokes an authenticity and truth.

She's also brutally honest about a failed marriage, illustrating the differences between her and her former wife that include clever shots at adoption ("an Asian baby is a status symbol in the gay community") and how their periods synched up, creating a level of irrationality that almost convinced her that homophobes have a point.

Although she's got a strong point of view, Jay's observations are a little scattered, but they're filled with sharp observations. New York City, she says, looks like a failed Sims game, and the way she describes a typical block will convince you. And although some of her Trump vs. Hillary jokes don't land, saying the failed presidential candidate exuded an "urban vice principal" vibe is right on.

Jay's most savage satire concerns the differences between white and Black men. True equality, she suggests, will come when Black men feel so entitled that they become serial killers like their white counterparts.

Culturally on point, lateral thinking observations like that are what make Jay a unique voice. Her jokes are funny, smart... you get the picture.